Fixing a Mistake
by CeliaEquus
Summary: Hermione was born in the wrong time. Now that she can go back in time, will she be able to stop herself from making the same mistake that she made before? And will true love fit into the equation at all? Disclaimer: I don't own the characters.
1. The First Trial

"The First Trial"

Sirius was dead; Malfoy was acting strangely; Harry was all angst-y; Ron was with Lavender, which was frustrating. All in all, things weren't good at the moment.

Hermione decided to take a walk.

Her feet led her to the Room of Requirement, and she saw, with surprise, that there was already a door there, and slightly ajar at that. Curious, she opened it enough for her to enter, and she gasped when she saw what was in there.

Row after row of bookshelves, stretching to the ceiling. It was magnificent, and to the consummate bookworm, it was enough to make the mouth water. She closed the door behind her in awe, and began to walk to the centre of the room. Once there, she rotated on the spot, still amazed, her lips parted as she took it all in.

"Why did _I_ never think to make a library appear here?" she asked out loud. "Of all the things I could ask for, surely this is the most obvious?"

"Perhaps," said a deep voice, and Hermione yelped as she saw her Potions teacher sitting in an armchair nearby, "it's because you're currently working your way through the Hogwarts library, Granger."

"Pro-professor Snape," she said, and she gulped. "Uh, well, I'm actually _re_reading the books in the library at the moment. Well, I mean, only the books that interest me; not things about Divination, for example." She made a face, and Severus suppressed a chuckle at her clear disdain for the 'subject'. "I've read most of the books before. Ergo, I need new reading material."

"You can't take things out of this room, you realise," Severus said.

"I'm a fast reader," Hermione replied with a shrug.

"Tell me, when did you _first_ finish reading all of the books in the library?" he asked, and Hermione blushed.

"Early in my third year," she said, and his eyes widened. That was when he had finished reading the ones that interested him, too. And those books most certainly did not contain any Divination texts, either.

"Sit down, Granger," he said, sweeping his arm to the chair that was opposite him, and Hermione obeyed, perching on the edge of the seat, waiting for further instruction. What she _didn't_ expect was the gaze that she got from her professor. It started with her hair, and slowly worked its way down her body, reaching her shoes. Then he looked all the way back up her, until he reached her eyes. She felt incredibly nervous, and incredibly… warm. He smirked.

"Pity," he said. "Such a pity."

"What is?" she asked, her tone a bit sharper than she meant it to be.

"That we didn't meet when _I_ was in school," he said. "Twenty years ago, I was in my sixth year, you know. We would have been perfect for each other. You're just my type, you know, except for the age difference. Both utterly shameless bookworms, both excessively clever." Hermione gaped at him, wondering whether she was just in a dream. "Of course, I wasn't as arrogant about my intelligence as you are. Well, perhaps arrogant, but not as… showy. You're just like Potter. No. If you had been with me, then I would have curbed your know-it-all streak in no time."

Unnerved by what her teacher was saying, what he was implying, Hermione rose to go, but Severus stopped her with a look. Instead, she opted for sinking back in the armchair.

"Granger, let me give you some advice," he said, still deadly serious. "You have to be careful about your choices in life, how you go about making decisions. You have to learn to follow your heart, girl, not your head. Life can't be learnt in books, and life is the hardest lesson you'll ever have to face."

He stood, and towered over her for several moments. "The surprise choice is often the one that should be made, Hermione." She could barely breathe, and didn't dare move until he had left the room. Once she was alone, she waited for three minutes, and then ran all the way to the headmaster's office.

* * *

"What does it all mean, Professor? Oh, Merlin, tell me what he meant. Why do I get the feeling that there was… that there was _subtext_?"

Hermione had told Professor Dumbledore everything that had happened in the room of requirement, describing Severus' look, his changed manner towards her, so different that she wondered if he had been Confunded. Or perhaps someone had used Polyjuice Potion, or the Imperius Curse. One could do anything with the Imperius Curse, after all.

"I'm afraid that you're right about the subtext, Miss Granger," Dumbledore said, and he silently bade her sit down. "You realise, of course, that you're not supposed to be here."

"But… I thought you should know…"

"I don't mean here as in place, I mean here as in time," he said, and she blinked at him, confused.

"Sir?"

"The Time Turner, Miss Granger. Why do you think you were allowed to have the Time Turner so readily?"

"Because I'm a good student, and wanted to learn as much as possible," Hermione said, blushing a little at her immodesty. "Well, that's what Professor McGonagall told me, anyway."

"She was right to a certain extent, but there was more to it," the headmaster told her, and she waited. "We had hoped that, given your slight tendency to rule-breaking—only for the best of reasons, naturally—we hoped that you might try to travel back in time to save Harry Potter's parents. We gave you the Time Turner so that you could change the past; and, thus, the future."

"But, sir, I helped Sirius Black…"

"Not the way you were supposed to," Dumbledore said. "I hate to have to say this, Miss Granger, but… everything that has gone wrong, from the time that Harry's parents were at Hogwarts, up until now, including Voldemort's resurrection… it's all because of a mistake you made in the past. We don't know what the mistake was, but…"

"What do you mean?" Hermione shrieked, jumping out of the seat and placing her hands on the desk. "How can it be? I was born…"

"You were _re_born, Miss Granger," he said. "You shouldn't be in this time. You're Muggleborn now, although you may not have been back then."

"When?"

"You were born in 1960; through the mistake that you made, you were somehow flung forward in time, and reborn in 1980. This threw everything out of whack, so to speak."

"So you're saying," she said, her voice deathly quiet, "that I'm to blame for all the murders that You-Know-Who has committed."

"Indirectly, yes."

She paused, and looked at him strangely.

"I think that this is all a dream," she said, pinching herself to make sure that it wasn't; but even when she felt the pain, she still continued. "Professor, I have a life. Yes, I was born in 1980. I have no memories of the sixties or seventies. I wasn't _around_ then."

"You missed the end of the seventies, yes," he replied. "We hoped that in your third year, you might make some mistake that could send you back to that decade; even if it meant that you just suddenly appeared there, you could have eventually come back to your proper time after stopping yourself from making the same mistake again."

"How could I fix anything if I don't know what the mistake _was_?" she said, raising her voice again.

"You might have seen yourself in danger of being magically transported to the future, and stopped it, or taken things over from there," Dumbledore continued desperately, but Hermione just stormed out of his office.

* * *

She finally found Professor McGonagall, who was talking to Professor Snape. She glared at him, and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Hello, Miss Granger," Minerva said kindly, seeing her student in distress. "What's the matter, dear?"

"Tell me that I'm not from the wrong decade," Hermione said; but the look that passed over her teachers' faces was enough. "Oh, my gods!" she cried, dropping to her knees on the stone floor. "It _can't_ be true. It just _can't_ be."

"Did Albus tell you?" Minerva asked, worried. "I'm so sorry, my dear."

"You warned me against messing with time, all the while hoping that I _would_," Hermione said, her voice deeper than usual, as she tried to steady her breathing.

"Teenagers are notorious for doing the opposite of what they're told," Severus said, and she looked up at him. "That was the reasoning."

"Was everyone in on it? All the staff at Hogwarts? Did Sirius know? Or Professor Lupin?"

"They all had to be told, yes," Minerva said. "We were all disappointed that you didn't manage to fix the past. Sirius thought he was just seeing things when you and Harry rescued him, after having been imprisoned in Azkaban for so long; he recognised you, but thought that, in the dark, he was just hallucinating. It didn't help that Harry was there, looking so like James. You were a good friend of Sirius', and his brother's. As for Remus, he had to be told. Of course, he was just delighted when you happened to be in the same compartment as he was on the train, just like the first time you met. But, of course, he couldn't let on…"

Hermione was only half-listening to what was being said. She had been lied to all this time, by the people she was supposed to trust. What else was a lie?

And could she do it? Could she do what they wanted, and go back to change time?

This required some thinking… and some reading.

It was her fault that Sirius was dead. It was her fault that Voldemort had come back, and that Sirius had died. Harry's guardian, his way out of Privet Drive. She had to make it up to him. Time-travel was clearly the only way to go about it, to reverse the effects of her mistake… whatever it was.

She constantly thought back to her conversation with Professor Snape in the room of requirement. He had stressed that she should follow her heart and not her head. He had told her that the surprise choice was often the one that she should make. While he hadn't specified that it was _her_, she now realised that he was advising her. Did he somehow know that she'd travel back, or at least try to?

And did this mean that he believed that she could do it?

So Hermione began her own research and training in the room of requirement. First things first: books.

* * *

Well, they were no use. Not even the room of requirement's library was able to help her. It was November 6 by now, nearly lunchtime, and she was about to lose her temper.

Actually, scratch that. She _did_ lose her temper.

There was a diary that she had been keeping, writing down everything that had happened in the first war, and then in the second war so far; everything that she could get a hold of from various people. She didn't tell any of them why she was keeping a record, and they just assumed that she was amassing information like she was wont to do.

Though Severus did have a funny idea about why she wanted to, literally, know it all…

She picked up the diary, and then immediately put it back down on the desk. She aimed her wand at it and, out of desperation cast the Imperius Curse on it.

"Take me back twenty years in time," she whispered, and she picked it up.

Nothing.

She angrily threw it back down onto the desk, and kicked one of the legs of the chair, hurting her toes. She stalked around the room, muttering to herself, blaming everyone under the sun—and, indeed, over the sun—for her problems, for her inability to travel back in time.

"I need to get out of here," she said. Not wanting to meet people, she decided to make a portkey to get herself out of the room. The grounds would be nice; autumn leaves were still falling. She liked the thought of crunching around, taking out her irritation on them.

She picked up the diary, it being the closest object by now, as she had arrived back at the desk. Pointing her wand at it, and thinking about the grounds, she said, "Portus." But something strange happened. She felt the usual pull on her navel; but instead of just going straight there, it seemed to take longer than usual, as if the portkey was taking its… time.

Eventually, Hermione arrived in the grounds of Hogwarts, amid students who… she didn't recognise. Had she done something wrong? Was she at a different school? Were these… Muggles?

No, it was definitely the grounds of Hogwarts. And there… there was Harry! Just down the hill there! Hermione raced down, hoping that he'd be able to explain what was going on. And look; there was Professor Lupin. No; he had told them to call him Remus.

He was young. So young. And… Sirius. Sirius was there.

Hermione stared, and realised that she was seeing the Marauders.

"No," she said hoarsely, and she ran up the hill.

Not looking where she was going, she ran into someone, knocking them to the ground.

"Watch where you're going," the gruff voice said, and Hermione looked up at who she had knocked over to apologise.

"I'm sorry, sir…" she said, her voice fading away as she looked into the young face of her Potions professor. He looked back at her intensely.

"Who are you?" he asked her quietly, and she couldn't speak for several seconds.

"He… Hermione Granger," she said, and he stood up. She took his offered hand, and he helped her up carefully.

"Are you all right?" he said, looking her down and up slowly. A sense of déjà vu took over, and Hermione just nodded. "Well, that's fine then. Hello. I'm Severus Snape."

"Yes," she said. "I mean, hello. I'm sorry, but I have to see the headmaster."

"I've never seen you before," Severus said, still holding onto her hand to prevent her from going. "Where are you from?"

Don't you mean 'when' am I from, Professor? she thought.

"I… uh…" She was never so glad that she was wearing Muggle clothes instead of her school robes. It wouldn't do for him to know that she was from the future… yet. Nor that she was in her own time, her original time… if that was right.

"I'll take you to him," Severus said, and she nodded. She had to pretend that she didn't know the castle.

Along the way, she pinched herself as she went through the possibilities. Definitely not a dream or a nightmare; well, not in the literal sense. The self-inflicted pain told her that. It could be a mirage; but her teacher was tangible, so that couldn't be. A Pensieve memory? No; she was interacting with him. Maybe a brain tumour… but she hadn't been having headaches lately, and she'd never met him at this age. Plus, she'd had to introduce herself, because he didn't know her. No. This whole damn thing was real, and she needed to do what she had come to do.

Change the future for the better.

"I just need to check the time," she told Severus, and she cast a charm to determine it, sneaking a look at the date… and the year. November 6, 1976. Exactly twenty years ago. And it was nearly lunchtime.

"Oh, look," she said. "I'm sure I can find my way to the headmaster's office. You go to lunch. It… it must be soon."

"I forgot all about it," he admitted. "The headmaster will be there anyway, so you may as well have lunch with me. With us. The students. Have lunch with us, and then I'll take you to the office afterwards."

"Okay," Hermione said with a smile, blushing at his stammering.

* * *

"Hi, Sev," someone said, and Hermione looked up with a start to see Bellatrix Lestrange smiling up at them from the Slytherin table. It would look suspicious if Hermione hexed her, or even backed away in fright; so she did the Gryffindor thing, and faced her with a smile.

Be brave, she told herself sternly. She's not a Death Eater. Yet. And even if she is, she can't hurt you at school.

"Hello," Hermione said, and she was introduced to the Black sisters, Bellatrix and Narcissa, and to Regulus Black. She didn't remember the other names straight away, and Severus whispered that he'd help her learn them later. If she was going to stay at Hogwarts, that is.

Over lunch, Hermione was in fits of laughter. Bellatrix was regaling her with stories of their childhood; well, she had to force laughter at the jibes about Muggleborns; but Bellatrix was a natural storyteller. Magical incidents at Black Manor, including pranks that they pulled on Sirius when he and Regulus came to stay. Knowing the kind of pranks that the Marauders pulled on her Potions professor, Hermione had little sympathy for Sirius, uncharitable though that was. But he wasn't dead here, in this time.

Eventually, she and Severus left the table so that she could go to the headmaster's office, little knowing that Dumbledore had been watching them all throughout the meal, wondering who the girl was. He arrived there before them, and was waiting in his office when Hermione entered, having got the password from Severus, who was a Slytherin prefect. He understood that she wanted to see the headmaster alone, and said that he'd wait outside for her. As it was a weekend in this year as well, there were no classes, so he was free.

Upon entering the headmaster's office, Hermione burst into tears, and ran to him. She collapsed to her knees, and he could only hear some of the words she spoke between sobs; but those words were clear.

"I've done it… I'm back…"

**

* * *

**

Gosh, what a long chapter. Okay, so this is bearing some similarities to my one-shot story, "A Note of Regret", which may possibly have a mid-quel eventually. Severus has told Hermione that it's a pity they didn't meet twenty years earlier; she's travelled back in time; Bellatrix Lestrange (Black) is an amusing storyteller.

**I was originally going to have this story happen in their fifth year, but changed it to the sixth year for artistic reasons that I can't even remember anymore.**

**So… what do you think? **


	2. The Second Trial

"The Second Trial"

"Perhaps if you start from the beginning, my dear," Professor Dumbledore said quietly, and Hermione looked up at him, trying to calm herself down.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Professor," she said. "But this… this is insane. I'm… from the future, you see." He raised his eyebrows. "No; let me rephrase that. I'm originally from this time, but I made this mistake—I don't know what it is—and was flung forward in time, and reborn in 1980… just under four years from now. You tried to set it up so that I could go back in time in 1993, but it didn't… work…" She slowed to a stop as it dawned on her. "Professor, you don't believe me, do you?"

"I find this hard to swallow, yes," Dumbledore said, nodding. "I especially find it hard to believe that I would actually try to manipulate the events of the past through a student."

"Well, I'm back here partly by accident, partly by design," Hermione told him. "But it's all true. Do you have the Pensieve in this time?" she asked suddenly, and he nodded, eyes widening. "I'll show you what happened to me the day I found out that I'm… well, wrong."

"Very well, Miss…"

"Granger, sir. My name is Hermione Granger, and I'm in… Gryffindor. Oh, Merlin. I just had lunch with Slytherins. I'm a Muggleborn in my time, but… well… I'll show you my memories."

She showed him various memories, the last few being her conversation in the room of requirement with the older Severus Snape, her conversation with the headmaster after that, and finally her conversation with Professors McGonagall and Snape after _that_.

The headmaster was silent when they finally withdrew from the Pensieve. He was clearly puzzled over something, and eventually looked up at her.

"So how did you get here?" he asked. Hermione looked down, refusing to meet his eyes, and concentrated on thoughts of her lunch with the Slytherins.

"I can't tell you that, Professor," she said. "It's bad enough that I'm affecting the past, simply by being here, even if it was partly on your own instructions. But I have no reason to trust you, after having been lied to all those years."

"I haven't lied to you in this time…"

"But what if you did? What if that's what leads to the mistake I make? What if I make the wrong decision based on something you tell me that just isn't true? I'm not going to risk going back to my _own_ time… It's bad enough that I'm only just existing now, when, according to you, I was supposed to be here from the start. It just isn't fair, Professor."

"I'm sorry, my dear," he replied. "Really, I am."

"Sir, I'm here to fix a mistake that I made, and I _will_ fix it," Hermione said, standing up calmly. "As Professor Snape suggested, I will consider every option, and make my choices with my heart, not my head. I will consider the 'surprise choice', and make it if necessary. If it's all up to me, then I will rise to the occasion. That's the best I can do, all I can do."

Dumbledore looked at her, his expression unreadable. Finally, he said, "He's not a professor yet, Miss Granger. You must remember who these people are now, not who they will become."

"Yes, sir," she said. "Right now, I must go and see _Severus_. He's waiting for me. Should I be sorted into a house, sir? _Re_-sorted, I mean."

"No," he said. "Tell no one that you're from Gryffindor. We could arrange for you to be sorted into Slytherin, as you seem to have made friends there."

"I'm visiting Hogwarts, after having been home-schooled, perhaps," Hermione suggested, ignoring the comment about making friends with Slytherin, which was couched in such a way that she was sure Dumbledore disapproved. "I'm a Muggleborn in my time, so I can't risk anyone knowing the truth about me. I… I like the people I've met here so far."

"You don't want them to like you for who you are?"

"Genes are a person's makeup, but they aren't necessarily that person," she said. "As it is, we don't even know who my parents are supposed to be in this time. Until then…"

"Perhaps you are here because I'm the only person who can help you find them, and that you were adopted before this," Dumbledore said.

"No; in an orphanage," Hermione said. "I can't just make up some people. Which orphanage? One that's just closed, perhaps? Or was burnt down, losing all of its records? Or is that just clichéd?"

"We'll work it out this evening," Dumbledore told her. "Let yourself be a mystery for now. Don't talk to too many people, until we can figure out what was supposed to happen."

"You know," Hermione said, turning to him before she left. "You haven't even suggested that I go back… well, back to the future." She giggled. "I haven't even got a Dolorean!" Dumbledore looked puzzled. "Oh. That movie isn't until the 80s. Never mind, Professor."

"Very well," he said, and she left the office, looking around eagerly for Severus once she was out.

"Over here," he said, and she saw him on the other side of the gargoyle.

"Hello, S-severus!" she said, quickly stopping herself from calling him 'sir'.

"I don't think anyone's ever been so enthusiastic to see me," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked, linking her arm in his. "You're my first friend at Hogwarts, after all."

"I am?" he said, frowning. "Why?"

"Don't question it, just go with it, Severus," she said, realising how easy it was to say his name. "Really." She had to keep up appearances, and make a new life for herself here, however temporary it may be. "Tell me; do you have a reliable library around here?"

His eyes lit up. "Of course we do! Come on; I'll show you where it is." He tugged her arm where it was linked with his, and they set off along the corridors together, happily talking about their love of books.

* * *

Hermione was amazed, and a little surprised, to see just how many books there were at Hogwarts in this time that they didn't have in the 90s. But then, there were books in the 90s that they didn't have here, so she had that advantage.

Naturally, Severus had read all of them; funnily enough, she learned, he had finished them at the start of his third year. He hadn't made the same mistake that she had in her year, however, by trying to do every subject on offer. Being in Slytherin meant that he couldn't do Muggle Studies, and he was sensible enough to realise that Divination wouldn't be for him. None of the Slytherins liked the subject, for that matter.

She pulled three books about Defence Against the Dark Arts off one of the shelves, books that she had never seen before, only ever heard about. Severus almost grinned when he saw which subject it was she was so interested in.

"Is that your favourite magical discipline?" he asked.

"Oh, well, I love them all; but it's always good to be prepared," she said, remembering the times she was living in.

"Tell me; what do you think of potions?" Severus asked quietly as they sat down in his favourite corner of the library; which, in Hermione's time, was her favourite corner, too.

"Underappreciated," she replied immediately, almost giggling at the fact that she was talking to her potions professor like this. "It's really very important, and something that everyone should learn."

Of course, she added to herself, more people would be interested in learning it if their professor didn't put them off so much by being so hard on everyone.

"Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts are my favourite subjects," Severus said, leaning forward eagerly, as Hermione put the books aside, temporarily forgotten, as she was so caught up in the conversation. "But you're right. Not everyone understands potions."

"With potions," Hermione said, warming to the subject, and to her former teacher, "you're more a part of the magical process. It's so hands-on. With things like charms, you just wave your wand, something happens, and that's it. Whatever colour sparks shoot out of the wand, that's all you see of the magic. It's quite complicated, technical, when you try to find out how the magic actually works."

"You're right," Severus said, his eyes gleaming, as he leaned forward even further, on the edge of his seat. "Potions is far more… what's the word?"

"Intimate?" Hermione suggested, and he nodded.

"You get involved in the process, and see the magic come alive," he said. "It's magic you not only see, but feel, touch, smell, and, of course, taste. All five senses."

"And in some cases, the sixth sense," she said, her smile widening. "But those potions are rare."

"I'm surprised you know about them," Severus said, sitting up straight again. "Though I guess I really shouldn't be surprised. You seem really smart."

"Thank you," Hermione said, blushing. She'd never had a real compliment—or, at least, anything remotely as close as this—from her potions teacher before. "You're really smart, too. I've never had a conversation like this before, except with people much older than me."

"I'm not," Severus said, smirking.

Not in this time, Hermione thought, sitting back. She noticed the abandoned books, and looked at Severus guiltily.

"You go on," he said, waving his hand to them. "I'll get some work done for class. You don't know how long you'll be around yet… or do you?" He looked at her hopefully. "Will you be at Hogwarts… for awhile?"

"I hope so," Hermione whispered back, and she quickly sat back in the chair, grabbed the book from the top of the stack, and hid her face behind it, blushing even more. Severus continued to smirk.

"Upside down," he said, and she quickly turned the book the right way up, poking her tongue out at him first. Oh, this was going to be fun. He could make a girl blush. Maybe this would help him get over Lily.

He sighed, and pulled out his potions homework. Slughorn had set them another tricky essay; but he revelled in the difficult essays, as he was one of the few who got top marks in them, and usually came out top of the class during the week. He was one of Slughorn's favourites… and wondered if Hermione might join the Slug Club, too.

He peered at her from where he started to make notes. Sitting there, with her nose in one of his favourite books, he just wanted to pull her into his lap and read along with her, distracting her every so often for his amusement.

Damn. He wouldn't get any work done at this rate.

Sighing again, he put his work away silently, and instead leaned back in his chair, watching Hermione as she became more involved in what she was reading. The book had finally lowered as she read the text hungrily, her finger skimming over the page lightly as she read with amazing speed.

He wondered if she'd like to go to Hogsmeade with him.

Would she? There was no harm in asking.

"Are you… staring at me?" Hermione asked suddenly, and he drew his eyes back to her face, which was looking at him nervously.

"What if I am?" he asked back.

"Were you thinking?"

"Yes."

"About what?"

"You."

"Me?" Hermione squeaked, closing the book carefully.

"I was going to ask you if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me on the next weekend; it's the nearby village, you know. But then I thought that maybe you wouldn't want to go, and would it be a waste of time asking, when I'd just be rejected? I'm used to rejection, but you haven't known me long enough to hate me yet, so it would be harder, you see."

"Yes; I see."

"So…"

"Seize the day, Severus, and just ask me already."

He blinked at her stern tone. "All right, then. Hermione Granger, will you go to Hogsmeade with me sometime?"

"Yes. Now may I get back to reading?"

"…Yes."

"Thank you."

But before Hermione could open the book again, Severus had swept down at her from the opposite chair, and pulled her head up for a kiss. It was a number of seconds before he pulled away again, both taken aback at what he'd done. He looked down at Hermione, about to apologise. She was biting her bottom lip, fighting a smile. She lost.

"Wow," she said quietly, blushing once again, her hands trembling. Severus smirked, and sat back down in his seat. Now he could definitely get on with his work.

* * *

Hermione's story was worked out. She came from a Muggle orphanage, which had closed down due to the fact that the building was falling apart. Everyone was split up, and during the transfer, a lot of paperwork was lost, including Hermione's. Professor Dumbledore was going to help her find her parents.

The reason why she hadn't received her letter for Hogwarts was because she had never been registered at birth with anyone. Thus, as far as bureaucracy was concerned, she didn't actually exist. Dumbledore told her that this sort of thing happened sometimes, so it was a convincing enough story.

They were both satisfied with it, which left Hermione free to make friends with whoever she liked. She wouldn't be sorted yet, 'just in case her parents were still alive, and wanted to take her away from Hogwarts'. In the meantime, she would have the long-empty guest quarters.

Her… well, were they friends? Her acquaintances from Slytherin went along with her to sort out the rooms, as they needed to be aired and redecorated. The Black sisters came in handy with this, knowing what Hermione would need. They were also able to lend her robes. The fact that she was wearing robes belonging to Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy was disconcerting for Hermione, to say the least. But Professor Dumbledore had told her that he'd provide her with everything she needed, which she could buy on the next Hogsmeade weekend.

And she was going with Severus. Incredible.

* * *

"Good morning!" she said happily when the next Hogsmeade day arrived. She sat next to Severus at the Slytherin table, and smiled at him.

"So," Narcissa said, looking between the two of them. "Looking forward to today?"

"Oh yes," Hermione said, almost bouncing in her seat. "It's going to be wonderful. Such a bright day outside, perfect weather, really. And you can help me buy clothes, which I'm sure you'll enjoy."

"Of course that's why you're looking forward to it," Narcissa said slyly, glancing at Severus, who just raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well, there's also a book shop, so I can look there," Hermione added, not noticing the looks. "He said I can buy whatever I need there, and anything I want for recreational reading. All of my stuff got lost in transit, except for what I had with me."

"Your clothes and that book," Severus said. Hermione had left the diary with Dumbledore, a bit reluctantly at first. She just nodded, and ate some more food.

"Where are you going to have lunch?" Regulus asked. Bellatrix was eating with the Lestrange brothers for breakfast, so it was just the four of them. "The Three Broomsticks?"

"Oh, I'm sure Severus knows where to go," Hermione said, risking a glance at him, before returning with a smile to her meal.

Yes, I do know, Severus thought, smirking.

* * *

True to their word, the Black sisters helped Hermione choose the right clothes, which were actually quite flattering on her. In fact, they were _very_ flattering, and she was made to wear one set of clothes for the rest of visit to the village. The rest were to be sent to Hogwarts.

Next stop was the bookshop. Severus took it from here, looking Hermione up and down appreciatively in the new garments. They had a pleasant time looking at all the volumes, some which Hermione had never heard of. Because she was to stay at Hogwarts and do all the subjects she would ordinarily do—fortunately Muggle Studies wasn't among them—she needed the right books. Severus was able to help her.

Of course, he stood quite close to her all the time. Hermione loved the shop in her time, but the shelves had never felt so close together as they did now. Not that she was complaining exactly; in fact, at all.

Come lunchtime, she had finished all her shopping, including buying an owl. She felt the loss of Crookshanks keenly, and almost cried when she watched the cats in the shop playing about. But Severus put an arm around her reassuringly, sensing her distress, and she chose a lovely black and white owl, completely missing the fact that it resembled Severus so much, right down to the large beak. But _he_ noticed all right.

"Now it's time for lunch," he said, once everything had been sent to Hogwarts. "Do you trust me, Hermione?"

"Yes," she said, confused by the question. "Why?"

"Because we're going to have lunch," he said, whispering directly into her ear, "quite a distance from the village. So I ask you again. Do you trust me?"

She shivered, and looked into her eyes. Did she trust him enough to leave Hogsmeade along with him? Was she willing to risk so much?

It's just lunch, she told herself. What could go wrong?

"Yes, Severus," she whispered back. "I trust you with my life."

"Good," he said, pulling her into an alleyway. "Hold onto me."

"Are we apparating?" Hermione asked, putting her arms around his waist, and liking the feel of him under her hands.

"Indeed we are," he said. "Though, Hermione," he said, leaning close to her ear once again. "You really shouldn't trust a stranger."

"But you're not a str…"

With that, they disappeared from Hogsmeade.

**

* * *

**

Where have they gone? Aargh!

**It's all right. I know where they're going.**


	3. The Third Trial

"The Third Trial"

"Open your eyes, Hermione."

She was still trembling after the Side-along Apparation, and Severus had to wrench her arms from around his waist, much as he hated to. He shook her shoulders gently until she opened her eyes, and looked around her.

They were in a park, by a river. Hermione looked around in awe. Leaves were still dropping from trees.

"What do you think?" he asked her, and she turned around to face him.

"It's lovely; but we shouldn't have left Hogsmeade, should we?" she asked. "After all, you're a prefect."

"They won't notice we're gone."

"Well, your friends might."

"They won't tell." Severus was very sure of this. He had worked out this plan well, and the others were already in on it. Of course, he wasn't going to tell Hermione that. Yet.

"So where are we going for lunch?"

"Here, of course," Severus said, and he pointed towards the trees. "Come on."

Hermione allowed herself to be led deeper and deeper into the forest, holding Severus' hand trustingly. He could have been leading her anywhere, even to Voldemort's clutches, and she wouldn't have cared. He needed her company, and feared her rejection. Her heart was telling her to trust him.

"How much longer?" she asked, just as they reached a small clearing. They were completely surrounded by trees and bushes. In the middle, there was a depression in the ground, in a perfect circle.

"Don't worry," he said, noticing her look. "It's not a fairy ring. It's always been here, and it's always been safe. I'll protect you from harm, anyway." He grinned at this, and pulled her to the edge of the circle. He pulled something small out of his pocket, and enlarged it to its proper size. It was a blanket, which he placed in the middle of the circle.

"Come here," he said, sitting down on it, and holding out his hand.

Head or heart, head or heart…

"Coming," Hermione said, and she sat down next to him with a smile. It was a big enough blanket to accommodate both of them, but small enough so that they were still sitting very close to each other. If Hermione wasn't enjoying herself so much, she would have been worried. As it was, the blanket was extremely comfortable, and she wriggled about on it in delight.

"So what's for lunch?" she asked him eventually, ignoring the feeling that arose from his intense stare.

You, he wanted to say. Instead, he summoned a house elf.

"Twinkle," he said, and a female house elf appeared.

"Yes, Master Severus?" she asked, bowing. "Hello, young miss," she added to Hermione, who smiled at her kindly.

"Nice to meet you, Twinkle," she said, and Severus watched her, amused. "I'm Hermione Granger."

"Miss Hermione, we have heard of you from Master Severus, as well as other people," Twinkle said, her eyes growing wider in awe. "But we had none of us met you."

"We would like our lunch, if you please, Twinkle," Severus said politely, and the house elf disappeared with a 'pop', before reappearing seconds later with a picnic basket and a thermos of butterbeer.

"Thank you, Twinkle," Hermione said, and Severus added his thanks. Twinkle bowed, and then left once again.

"I hope you enjoy this," Severus said. "I picked things based on what I've seen you enjoy the most at meals."

"You've been watching me that much?" she asked, shrinking back from him a little. "Why?"

"Why not?" Severus asked, taking out two goblets, and pouring butterbeer into both, before handing one to Hermione. "I wanted to be prepared for this. I thought you'd appreciate it."

"Oh, I do!" Hermione said, placing a hand on his arm reassuringly, and his frown lessened a little. "I'm sorry, Severus. I don't want to appear ungrateful. It's just that no one's ever been so considerate. I've never really had a proper boyf…"

She stopped, looking down with a blush, and instead reached into the basket for a sandwich. Severus watched her pick one out, and unwrap it. He moved closer to her as she took a bite, and wrapped one arm around her shoulder. She stiffened, and looked around at him; but he seemed to be sincere, not about to pull any tricks, so she relaxed into him, and continued to nibble at the sandwich.

"I'm willing to volunteer," he said. She looked at him again, and swallowed deeply. Her potions professor was asking… well, no. He wasn't asking to 'go steady' with her. But he was willing.

Was she?

"That would be…" she began, and she watched his face, observing his reactions to her every word. He was listening intently. "I'd like that, Severus. I'd really… really like that."

He smiled, and pressed his lips to her. Unlike last time, she responded immediately, dropping her sandwich into its wrapping, and instead wrapping her own arms around his shoulders, as he held her by the waist.

"I don't want to spoil a perfect moment," Severus said, eventually breaking away from her when they came up for air. "But I'm starving right now, and I think we should eat and drink some more before we continue, don't you?" Hermione could only nod.

* * *

They were almost late returning to Hogsmeade. Sure enough, they hadn't been missed, and were able to sneak in at the back of the line of students. Narcissa and Bellatrix shot knowing looks at Hermione, who almost rolled her eyes. She settled for smiling weakly at them instead, feeling Severus' arm tighten possessively around her waist as they heard the unmistakable sound of the Marauders getting nearer.

"Hey, look! Snivellus has a girlfriend!" Sirius Black said, and his friends laughed. Hermione's eyes narrowed at the sight of Peter Pettigrew, but she remained calm. She was more concerned about Severus going off the deep end.

"Leave her alone, Black," he said through clenched teeth, and the Marauders laughed again. Hermione could sense him reach for his wand, and she grabbed his arms, pinning them to his side as she held him still.

"For Merlin's sake, don't do it," she whispered to him desperately. "Please, Severus."

"So help me, if they say anything about you," he muttered back, and the Marauders cackled again as James Potter approached them.

"The new girl must be desperate if she's with Snivellus," he said, looking her up and down very obviously. Hermione knew she couldn't hold onto Severus for much longer.

"Well, he's sure as hell had more success with me than you've had with Lily Evans," she said, and he stopped laughing. "Quite frankly, who can blame her? Gods, imagine living with you. You'd be an utter nightmare."

"And you think _Snivellus_ would be any bet…"

Hermione had her wand out and at James' throat in an instant. There was a fire in her eyes that scared him.

"Don't you ever, _ever_ talk about my boyfriend that way again," she said, her voice dropping, but clearly audible to every student in the vicinity, including the teachers. All looked on with interest, though the teachers were also apprehensive. "He's a far better man than you'll ever be, assuming you ever grow up. So if you ever want to have kids, you'll leave him alone. And you'll stop using that name. Am I quite clear, James Potter?"

"P-perfectly," he said, eyeing her wand nervously. She whipped it away quickly, and he almost fainted, thinking that her sudden movement meant that she was about to hex him. She smirked, a very Severus Snape-like smirk, at his reaction.

"What; scared of a Gr… girl, Potter?" She was so intense that no one noticed her almost slip-up. Not even Severus noticed.

"Miss Granger, that's quite enough," a voice said, and Professor McGonagall walked down the incline to intercept her. "Now, you'll apologise to Mr. Potter for threatening him."

Gods, she's as favourable to the Gryffindors as Severus… Professor Snape… is to the Slytherins. Why did I never notice it before? Or was it just a matter of balance back then, unlike now?

"No, I won't," she said calmly. "Not unless Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, and Mr. Pettigrew are willing to stand up in front of the school and apologise to Severus for having bullied him so cruelly all these years. Right under your nose, Professor. Right under the nose of Professor Dumbledore, too. Perhaps it _is_ a mistake to have a Gryffindor running Hogwarts. Someone from Hufflepuff would be better; they don't play favourites the way that _you_ do. No. Unless and until _they_ stand up and say that they're sorry in front of _everyone_ in the school, they will not get an apology from me."

Everyone was quite astounded at what Hermione was saying. The Slytherins were the most impressed, however; she was saying basically what they'd all been thinking, although they were more inclined to want a Slytherin running Hogwarts. But Hermione was right. There was far too much bias.

"Miss Granger, you must not take that tone with me," Professor McGonagall said, drawing herself up. She was much taller than Hermione; but Hermione was in a worse temper, and just about ready to hex anyone who ever wronged her Severus.

Her Severus. Oh, Merlin. Had it really come to that?

"It's all right, Professor," Remus said, walking forward. "James did provoke her, although she shouldn't have drawn her wand on him like that."

"Why is a Marauder a prefect?" Hermione asked, tilting her head.

"Marauder?" Minerva asked, frowning.

"Oh, yes," Hermione murmured, looking at the four boys' faces. "I've heard that they call themselves the Marauders. And they hardly need a map to find their way around Hogwarts, do you, boys?"

Turning away before she could burst out laughing—or burst out hexing—she took Severus' arm in hers, and pulled him along to the carriages. Their Slytherin friends followed, congratulating Hermione for standing up to the head of Gryffindor like that, and Severus gave her such a wonderful smile in thanks that she nearly fell over.

In actual fact, she _did_ fall over. Head-over-heels fall over.

A Hogsmeade visit had never been so wonderful.

* * *

Later that evening, Hermione was running late to meet Severus in the library, as she had been called to the headmaster's office. He had reprimanded her for her behaviour in Hogsmeade, and Hermione kept her thoughts on the argument with Professor McGonagall as she steadfastly looked at the floor. No sense in getting Severus in trouble by having the headmaster read her mind as she thought about their picnic.

"Why did you make him a prefect?" she had asked. "Severus? Was it out of guilt, for letting his four tormentors get away with so much? For what they've done, the amount of time they've been doing it, and the utter concentration they've placed on making his life miserable… they should all have been expelled." She didn't mention their illegal Animagus status, saving that for later use.

"Miss Granger, it is not your business to question my decisions, nor my motives behind them," Dumbledore had said severely. "You must be ready to apologise to James Potter at some stage, as Minerva's going to insist on that."

Hermione had snorted at that remark, and left the office soon after, having made no promises of any kind to apologise to anyone. She was just interested in getting to the library to see her boyfriend.

Boyfriend. Hermione Granger had a boyfriend. And it was Severus Snape, her potions teacher.

No. Not her potions teacher. Just her friend. _Boy_friend.

As she walked along, a skip in her step, someone called her name from the darkness. Not recognising the voice, she whipped out her wand.

"Who is it?" she asked, and a redheaded girl stepped out. Hermione recognised her by the eyes immediately.

"Lily Evans," she said at the same time as the girl. Lily's eyes widened.

"I'm just here to warn you," she said.

"About what? Is your boyfriend about to attack me? Do the cowardly thing and ambush me with his friends, four against one? They seem to like doing that…"

"Stop!" Lily said loudly. "Look, he's not my boyfriend. I don't even like him."

Hermione's eyebrows rose. Harry's parents didn't like each other? Actually, she kind of remembered him telling her that, in his third year. Hmm.

"I'm here to warn you about Severus," Lily continued, and Hermione's eyes narrowed.

"What about him?" she asked sharply.

"Look, he's a Slytherin, for one thing," Lily began.

"So are his friends," Hermione said, crossing her arms. She began to tap her foot, raising an eyebrow. "What else?"

"He… we used to be friends, and he… I think he liked me. But then he called me a… a… a Mudblood. He's tried to get me back again and again, but…"

"But you bear a grudge just as well as he does," Hermione finished. Lily's words had stung her. So they could never be serious, because he was hung up on her best friend's mother. Was she just a rebound?

"It's not like that," Lily said, frustrated.

"You're trying to warn me off him because you still like him," Hermione continued, flames of envy licking at her ankles.

"There was never anything like that," Lily said. "Not on my side."

Severus, watching from the shadows, felt a pang in his chest. So Lily really didn't care about him like that. No wonder she had never forgiven him. It was entirely justified; but he was under the impression that friendship would never die. He wasn't sure whether or not he was glad that he had come looking for his girlfriend.

"He's still under your thumb, I bet," Hermione said, tears beginning to form at the edges of her eyes. Lily noticed this, and was curious.

"You fancy him, don't you?" she asked slowly.

"Of course I do!" Hermione said. "He's my boyfriend, isn't he? And I… I thought he liked me, but he's only ever liked you. Gods, I _am_ just a rebound, aren't I?"

She is, isn't she? Severus thought, ashamed of himself. But Hermione… she still likes me, even though she knows… she _thinks_… that she's just to get over Lily. She _is_ just to get over Lily… isn't she?

While he mused, Hermione began to cry in earnest. Lily started forward to comfort her, but Hermione just put her arms up defensively.

"I should have known," she said, shaking her head, emotion choking her voice. "Nobody's ever liked me like that. I can't even hold onto Severus Bloody Snape, and he's hardly got girls crawling all over him like those arrogant twits, the Marauders. Or at least their ringleaders. They make me sick; Black and Potter. Potter especially. To look at, he reminds me of someone from my past; but he's _so_ different from my friend. So different."

"Hermione, I'm sorry…" Lily said, but Hermione put her hands up in front of her.

"No, you're not. Not really. You take some kind of pleasure in torturing Slytherins, all you high-and-bloody-mighty Gryffindors. I feel sick that I was ever one… ever one to believe in house unity," she said, correcting herself. She wasn't thinking clearly, but she was still aware enough not to give herself away. "There's no such thing, is there?"

With a twist on her heel, she ran down the corridor, returning to the guest quarters, not hearing the footsteps behind her.

Lily saw with horror the familiar flick of robes as her old friend, Severus Snape, set off down the corridor after his girlfriend. She had never meant for this to happen. She was just trying to help. Had she got everything wrong… again?

* * *

"Hermione! Hermione, open up! Please, Hermione, please. Where _were_ you? I was so worried. Please open the portrait, Hermione! I need to talk to you. Please? Oh gods, you're not hurt, are you? I'll never forgive myself, never. Merlin, Hermione. Just open up, would you? I'll wait out here all night if need be. Please hear me out."

Hermione finally pushed the portrait open when she heard Severus' voice going hoarse. She looked at him, her expression blank, but her cheeks saturated with heartbreak.

"What is it, Severus?" she asked tiredly.

"Can I have some water first?" he asked, his voice raspy.

"Fine then. Aguamenti," she said, showering him with water. She finally stopped after getting no reaction from him. He blinked once.

"Feel better?" he asked.

"Much, thank you."

"Good. Perhaps next time it could be in some kind of cup?"

Hermione sighed. "If you insist. Come in."

Severus stepped into the room gratefully. Hermione transfigured an ornament into a goblet, and poured some water into it. He downed it in one gratefully, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and returned the goblet to the shelf. He transfigured it back to its original form for Hermione, who just nodded her thanks, and then sat down near the fire.

"Hermione, I… I heard what you and Lily were talking about," he said, hanging his head, but Hermione didn't react. While she hadn't known that he was there, she just didn't have enough emotional strength left. "I'm sorry. I should have explained about our past… friendship. That's all it was. Yes, I wanted more. Clearly, she didn't. But then you came along."

"And then I came along," Hermione said, echoing his words hollowly.

"I've never wanted anyone more in my life," he said. She looked up. "Sure as hell no one's ever wanted me. At all. In any way. My family, my friends, Lily… none of them are as loyal as you are, and we only just met about a week ago. You don't even think of me as a stranger."

"You're not a stranger to me," Hermione whispered as he got closer to her. Closer, closer…

"Hermione, I want you to be mine, to belong to me," Severus said, his face so close to hers that they felt each other's breath. "I'd kill for you; I'd die for you. Ask of me anything, and I'll do it. Just be mine, only mine."

"Oh gods, Severus," she said, staring into his eyes. "Do you really want me?"

"Yes; but the question is, do you want _me_?"

They kissed. It was beautiful, deep, intense. Severus rested his knees against the arm rests of Hermione's chair as he pulled her into his arms, close to his body.

"Yes," she murmured, pulling away from his lips to reply. "Yes. I want to be yours, Severus."

"Then don't let me go," he said. "And don't stop me. Whatever you do, don't stop me. I want you, all of you, Hermione."

"Take me, then," she said. "Severus, I'm giving my heart to you. You're going to get the rest of me, too. Do what you want with it. With me."

"Gladly," he said, and he picked her up into his arms easily, and carried her to the bedroom, which he had helped to redecorate. He blessed Regulus' insistence that she have a double bed, since she had room and should make the most of it.

Now Severus was going to make the most of it, too.

"Are you sure about this, Hermione?" he asked at the last moment.

Head or h… Oh, sod it.

"I've never been surer in my life," she replied, and after that there were only two things on her mind: Severus Snape, and how much she loved him.

**

* * *

Ooh. Underage 'relations'. I didn't anticipate this exactly. So short a time after they met, at that.**


	4. The Fourth Trial

"The Fourth Trial"

After their night together, Hermione knew that she could only ever love Severus; and even if he never said that he loved her, she knew that he cared, and that was more than enough for her.

She also grew closer to the other Slytherins of her age. They became her family over the coming days, and then weeks. Without any knowledge of who her family was supposed to be in this time, she had no one else. So she spent her days with them, and her spare time in the library with Severus. They only slept together that one time, but it was enough for both of them at that point. They were still underage, after all.

But one thing did bother her. It was the way the Slytherins talked about Muggleborns.

She knew that she should have been prepared for remarks about 'Mudbloods'; but they were talked about as though they were the lowest life form, lower than insects. Being a Muggleborn in the 90s, it didn't just make Hermione feel uncomfortable. These were the people who were her best friends in this time; and she was consistently hurt by their disparaging remarks.

Hermione found herself again asking Professor Dumbledore to find her parents in this time, no matter how difficult it might be. Blood samples, anything. She would give anything to find out that she wasn't Muggleborn.

What a traitor I am, she thought to herself. Just to impress my new friends. But no. It isn't to impress. I don't want to alienate them. I have no one to fall back on. The Slytherins have accepted me, which means that no one else will. If I lose their friendship… maybe that's the mistake I make. I can't let that happen.

She explained all of this, very calmly, to the headmaster.

"Well, I'm doing my best," Dumbledore told her. "It's a pity I never told you in your time; but as you were reborn, it's surprising that anyone remembered anything at all. I do wonder how… but that's all academic. Yes, I'll take some of your blood. You may need to get Professor Slughorn's help with this, but I hear that you get on well?"

"Yes, sir," she said. "He's been very good to me, very kind. Yes, we get on well. He, Severus, and I all discuss potions together some evenings."

"Very well, then," he said. "But about your friendship with the Slytherins."

Hermione stiffened.

"What about it?" she asked, frost approaching her voice.

"You are Muggleborn all the same," he said. "Did it ever occur to you that, considering where I suspect them all to be heading… that they may ask you to become a Death Eater when they do?"

"I was hoping to stop them from becoming Death Eaters if at all possible," she replied, her voice wavering. "That would be so much better, don't you think?"

"At any rate, you must consider that they may want you to join Lord Voldemort's ranks, and you must be prepared to make a decision about it," Dumbledore said.

Thoughts overtook Hermione's mind. What _this_ the big decision that she was supposed to make? Was she supposed to become a Death Eater before, and didn't? Or did she join them, and get thrown forward in time because of it? It certainly would be a mistake to join their ranks. In fact… it would be the surprise choice. But what about heart versus head? If Severus joined them… to follow her heart would be to follow him. But she hated Voldemort's views, his ideologies, and her heart would surely tell her to refuse.

"I'll worry about that when the time comes," she finally said. "No point in tempting fate by thinking about it now, eh? Anyway, I must go now, Professor. Severus and I are going to have one of our usual talks tonight, and I have to do some work before then."

"Very well, Miss Granger," he said, and she left.

* * *

Severus was waiting outside her rooms for her, not looking at all happy.

"What's the matter, Severus?" Hermione asked, walking towards him more quickly. "Has something happened?"

"Those bloody Marauders decided to stage a battle, four-against-one again," Hermione gasped, and scowled furiously, "and just as I was fighting back, McGonagall came along."

"Oh dear," Hermione said. She knew what was coming.

"I've got detention with her every night this week, starting tonight. The other four have detention with Filch tonight. I don't know which is worse; detention with him, or detention with her."

"It's just not fair," Hermione said, tears sliding down her cheeks.

"Go to the meeting with Professor Slughorn anyway, and tell him what's happened," Severus said. "Maybe he'll be able to reduce my punishment when he hears the circumstances. He likes you a lot, just as he likes me. I'm sure he'll be willing to try and intervene."

"Of course he will," she replied. She tugged at the collar of his robes, and smoothed out the front of his coat. "Don't worry about a thing, Severus. I'll do everything I can. It's terrible the way things are done here. Terrible."

"Thank you, Hermione," he said. Holding her face gently, he kissed her. "I'll see you later. Well, tomorrow."

"'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow'," she said, quoting from _Hamlet_.

* * *

When Hermione reached Professor Slughorn's office, she was amazed to hear him singing from the inside. He called for her to come in after she knocked, and she opened the door to a strange sight.

He was drunk. Sloshed. Sozzled. Oh dear.

"A pas' studen' of mine sen' a bottle of Ogden's t'me," he said, and he hiccuped. She noticed that the bottle on the floor beside him was nearly empty, and raised her eyebrows, before remembering that a drunk wizard was a dangerous wizard. Perhaps she should leave.

"Been relivin' the pas', the forties," he said. "_Terrible_, terrible times, dear girl."

"Yes indeed, Professor," she said, unsure whether he was referring to the second world war, or if he was just dwelling on younger days, and thinking them unhappy because he was so much older now.

"You know, you're so intelligen'," he said. "You and Severus. Both so smar'. You make me proud. Remind me of a studen'… but he didn' make me proud. No, sir. He wen' the wrong way."

"Professor, I should go," she replied, edging towards the door, horrified that she was seeing so respectable a teacher in such a state.

"He asked me abou' horcru… horcruxes once, you know," Slughorn said. "_Dark_, dark magic. Wan' to hear abou' it?"

"Uh…" Hermione said, considering bolting. That was the sensible thing to do.

_The surprising choice is often the one you should make_.

"Certainly, sir," she said, still backing away slowly.

"_Dark_, dark magic," he repeated. "When you m-murder someone, you can put some of their s-soul into an objec', you see. Makes them immortal. Uses some spell. Iss in a book, Restricted Section."

"That's… that's _horrible_, Professor!" Hermione exclaimed, pausing in her steps, her full attention on him now. "Did you tell him that?"

"Y-yes," he said, and he hiccuped again, tears streaming down his cheeks. "Oh, Merlin. He asked if it was possible to make _seven_." He slumped over in the chair, about to pass out. Something told Hermione to ask him who it was, so she did.

"Who was it, you ask?" Slughorn said. Just before he passed out, he said, "Tom Riddle."

Hermione's mouth dropped open. Tom Riddle. Wasn't that…?

She had obviously been right to stay, then. Maybe Professor Dumbledore could intervene for Severus in exchange for the information that she now held. How… how Slytherin of her.

But Severus is more important to me than anything else, she thought. Yes. She would bargain with the headmaster if need be. And she had a feeling that this information was definitely important.

**

* * *

So far, there have been four trials. I'll clarify them, partly so that I can keep track, and partly to explain the titles. The trials are all decisions that she has to make, following Severus' advice from the 90s. Of course, there are other interpretations, as she makes more than just one decision per chapter, as a rule. These are just the ones at the end of each chapter, so yes.**

**Trial 1: making the decision to travel back in time.**

**Trial 2: making the decision to trust Severus with her life.**

**Trial 3: making the decision to give herself, and everything about herself, to him.**

**Trial 4: making the decision to stay and listen to Slughorn.**

**Three more chapter left after this!**

**By the way—could you please help with this unofficial poll I have? I've started a new time-travel story, and want suggestions for the main pairing. It will be Hermione and someone else. I've had one vote for teen-Lucius, one for teen-Remus, and one for teen-Severus.**


	5. The Fifth Trial

"The Fifth Trial"

As Hermione walked along the corridors to the headmaster's office, confident that she had made the right decision and was about to save Severus from the rest of the detentions, she barely noticed the four boys heading towards her.

She was disarmed before she had a chance to react, and was slammed back against a wall as a consequence.

"Hi, Granger," Sirius said, approaching ahead of the others, his wand out.

"So you four really _do_ prefer to attack en masse," Hermione said, spitting her words. She tried to go for her wand, but Sirius held his wand tip against her neck, just as she had done to James earlier that day.

"It's more fun to attack Slytherins that way," he said with a grin. Hermione almost shivered. This was such a different Sirius Black to the one she had known in her day; and to think that she had cried at his death.

"I'm not a Slytherin," she said, tilting chin up defiantly.

"You're as good as," James said, flanking his friend on one side, Remus and Peter on the other side, looking slightly nervous.

"I suppose this is the way Voldemort enjoys to attack Muggles, as well," she said. "At a disadvantage. After all, they don't have wands, either."

All four of the Marauders' eyes flashed at her words.

"We're nothing like them," James hissed from behind Sirius. Hermione glanced briefly at Peter, hoping against hope that he hadn't yet taken the Dark Mark.

"Why do you do this?" Hermione asked calmly. "What have I done to you before today?"

"Oh, this is just for today's little stunt," Sirius said, backing up a bit, his wand still aimed at Hermione's chest. "Pity to do it to one so pretty."

"Sirius, be careful," Remus said, glancing at either side to see if anyone was coming. "We've been caught once tonight already."

"What; scared, wolf?" Hermione said, glaring at him. Remus paled, as did the other four.

"What…" Remus started to say, and Hermione felt a slight twinge of guilt. But thoughts of Severus squashed that guilt.

"And what about you, dog?" she asked Sirius. "Though considering your reputation, I would have thought that being a stag would be more your thing. And _you_, you rat," she added finally to Peter, who had started shaking all over by now.

"For Merlin's sake, Peter," James hissed. "Show some courage."

"Maybe if you didn't bully him so much yourself, and treated him as more of an equal, he would respect you more, and grow into a better person," Hermione said angrily. "And as for Remus, he probably wouldn't be half as shy or self-effacing if you didn't force him to break so many rules just so he can continue to be friends with the two of you. Yes, I said two. After all, you're the ringleaders. I've never believed that friendship should have a hierarchy. Friendship is a level playing field. Hypocrites."

She pushed past them roughly, and grabbed her wand off the floor. She remembered what Professor Dumbledore had said; she was supposed to be friends with Sirius and Regulus, and she met Remus on the train. For Severus' sake, she had to try to make friends with them. And for Harry's sake, too, of course.

Yes, of course for Harry's sake.

With a sigh, she turned around, and smiled at them.

"Can't you just _try_ and be nice? I'm sure you have it in you to be decent human beings; everyone has. And you're in Gryffindor house, where nobility, loyalty, and courage are supposed to reign. And yet you consistently attack my boyfriend, four-against-one. Now I ask you: where's the bravery in that? Where's the nobility? And what loyalty have _you_ two," she pointed at James and Sirius, "shown to Remus and Peter? For Merlin's sake, trust lost once takes a long time to rebuild, and sometimes it can't. Don't alienate your friends. I've lost friendship many times over the years, and have been lucky enough to regain it. Don't let your tight-knit group crumble. _At all costs_, don't let it. Family you can't choose," she said, acknowledging Sirius, "though you owe them a degree of loyalty, just as they owe you loyalty. But friendship is optional, and not to be taken for granted."

She then walked off, hoping against hope that she had done something right, that they might change, that they might yet be spared. Peter from the Mark, James and Lily from Voldemort, Sirius from Azkaban…

She turned around at the last moment. "Oh, and my dear Marauders? _Ever_ bully Severus again, and Dumbledore is told about your... moonlit activities. Don't ask me how I know; I just do. Do I have your words, on your honour as Gryffindors, never to harass Severus Snape again, on pain of hexing and secret-revealing?"

Once she had their hasty agreements, she skipped along to the headmaster's office to tell him about the horcruxes.

Once she had secured Severus' release, that is.

* * *

"Headmaster? I think that there's something I should tell you, something very important in relation to Voldemort."

"Yes, Miss Granger?" he asked, his eyes taking on an almost greedy look as he leaned forward, steepling his fingers.

"You know, I met four boys on the way to your office," Hermione said, sitting down and examining her nails. "They attacked Severus this evening."

"The information, Miss Granger…"

"He's currently serving detention with Professor McGonagall, and will every night this week. They were only given one detention this evening, from which they've somehow managed to get away early."

"Miss Granger, please, what you were going to tell me…"

"Has slipped my mind temporarily," Hermione said, making sure that her thoughts were focussed on her last conversation with Severus, where he told her about the detentions. "I'm sure it will come back once I have this terrible worry off my shoulders. You know; the worry about Severus having to have detention for defending himself against a four-against-one attack."

"Miss Granger, are you trying to bargain with me?" Dumbledore asked, standing, hands on his desk, and looking down at her sternly.

"Why, headmaster. I would have thought that that was against the rules. But as you can clearly see, my mind is completely on Severus. I won't be able to concentrate at all thinking about him. I do apologise."

Dumbledore sighed. "You really are a Slytherin, you know. No matter what your past house was, you really are now one of them."

"The Slytherins are infinitely sensible, and they have loyalty, just as Gryffindors do. Even more so when you compare them to your precious Marauders."

"Don't take that tone with me, Miss Granger."

"I see you don't need my help. Good night, headmaster."

"Wait!" Dumbledore pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'll talk with Minerva tomorrow."

"Then I shall tell you tomorrow night. If you think you can wait that long…"

"Where is he?"

"…With Professor McGonagall."

"Very well."

* * *

They reached the Transfiguration professor's classroom to see Severus cleaning desks without magic, while Minerva marked essays. Severus looked up with pleased surprise to see Hermione, though he also looked confused.

"Albus!" Minerva said, looking up from the essays. "Mr. Snape, I didn't tell you to stop working."

So that's where he learnt his curtness from, Hermione thought, looking at her boyfriend sympathetically.

"I was wondering if perhaps Mr. Snape could be relieved from his other detentions this week," Dumbledore asked Minerva politely. She looked surprised.

"May I ask why, headmaster?" she said.

"I have learnt that he wasn't the only one at fault," Dumbledore replied. "As his assailants have already finished their own detention, it seems unfair that Mr. Snape should have to continue."

"Well, if you insist, Albus," Minerva said, looking only a little ashamed. "You're excused from the rest of your punishment, Mr. Snape. Good night."

Severus nodded curtly at her, and then quietly thanked the headmaster. He went up to Hermione.

"Meet me in my rooms, and I'll be there as soon as I can to explain everything," she whispered into his ear. He nodded, still confused, and left the room.

"Thank you, Minerva," Dumbledore said. "Come along, Miss Granger. We have things to discuss, I believe."

"Thank you, Professor McGonagall," Hermione said politely.

"You're welcome, Miss Granger. Albus."

* * *

Back in the headmaster's office, they sat down again.

"Now, could we please start again?" Dumbledore asked, and Hermione nodded.

"I got this information from a very drunk Professor Slughorn, who was reminiscing about his days of teaching one Tom Riddle," she said. "Oh. The good professor was unconscious from drink when I left him."

"I'll let Poppy know," Dumbledore said, and he sighed as he flooed Madame Pomfrey, who promised to go straight to Slughorn's study and attend to him. "Now, continue, Miss Granger."

"From what I could gather, Voldemort asked him about a thing called a horcrux, which Professor Slughorn explained to him. It's an object where a part of a person's soul is stored. You have to kill someone first, using the Killing Curse, and then the part of the soul is embedded in the object… somehow. It's in a book in the Restricted Section, apparently. That's where _he_ found it, you see, sir. It makes the person immortal. In my time, Voldemort wasn't killed properly in 1981; he was able to come back to life even though the Killing Curse had rebounded off Harry Potter onto him."

"Harry Potter?"

"James and Lily Potter's son. He's one of my best friends at Hogwarts… in the nineties."

"I see."

"And there's one more thing. Tom Riddle asked if it was possible to make more than one horcrux. He suggested seven. As you know, it's the most magical number. But I'm not sure how many horcruxes he may have made by now, if any. But he could have done. He's killed enough people."

"Quite true, Miss Granger; quite true," Dumbledore said, nodding his head. "Well, I think you're onto something there."

"Thank you, sir," Hermione said, blushing. "It was by accident, but I decided to stay behind as what he was saying seemed to be important."

"Indeed. Well, thank you very much. You've been most helpful. I wonder," he continued. "Could you help me with something else?"

"What is it, sir?" she asked, tilting her head. He pulled out her diary, and pushed it across the desk to her.

"It won't open," he said. "I've tried everything."

"Hmm," Hermione said, and she began to try everything she could think of to open it up. "I definitely didn't put any kind of password protection spell on it. I'll take it with me, and return if I can open it."

"Very well. Good luck with that then, Miss Granger."

"Perhaps," she said, turning around just as she reached the door of the office, her hand on the door handle. "Perhaps the past isn't to be meddled with it. Or, perhaps by being here, I'm changing history as we know—knew—it, thus causing a disruption within the diary, making it unopenable."

"Perhaps," Dumbledore said, nodding. "Good night, Miss Granger."

"Good night, Professor Dumbledore."

**

* * *

**

Back in Brisbane now. Woo hoo!!!

Two more chapters left, intrepid readers. I'm not sure how long they'll be, but I decided to make it seven chapters long, as a tribute to the fact that, as mentioned above, seven is the most magical number. Three is pretty special, too. I've got this whole book on numbers, which is just fascinating. Myths associated with them, various expressions, mathematical anomalies… fascinating stuff.

**Anyway, see you next chapter!**

**Although I do confess, I don't know what the actual 'trial' was in this chapter. Was it when she tried to influence the Marauders' futures for the better? Or when she bargained with Professor Dumbledore? Hmm. Sorry it's a bit unclear.**


	6. The Sixth Trial

"The Sixth Trial"

As soon as Hermione walked into the guest quarters, she was swept up into Severus' arms, and kissed passionately. She responded enthusiastically, holding onto him tightly as he expressed his thanks. Her response was a very resounding 'you're welcome'.

"Now, explain," he said, sitting down in an armchair, holding her on his lap. "You pulled strings somehow."

"It's almost a good thing you didn't come along to the meeting, because you would have dissuaded me from staying on so many levels," she said, and she giggled. "Professor Slughorn was as drunk as a lord… so to speak."

"Did he do anything to you?" Severus asked sharply.

"Hardly," Hermione said. "But he gave me some useful information, which I used to secure your release."

"You make it sound like I was in prison, or something," he said, smirking.

"Close enough; and I said that I'd get you out of it somehow, didn't I?" she replied. "Ungrateful sod."

"Oh, I thought I expressed my thanks very well," he said, mumbling a little as he pressed his lips against her as he spoke.

"You did indeed. I quite forgot."

"Care for a reminder?"

"Yes, please."

After a few minutes of helping Hermione 'regain her memory', they broke apart, and Severus looked at her strangely.

"Is there something you're not telling me? For example, why the Marauders just passed me by with a simple, collective 'hello'?"

"Did they? Did you hex them?"

"I was too unnerved. It was your doing, wasn't it?"

"Well… yes."

"Okay," he said. "What hold do you have over them?"

"I knew a big secret that they wouldn't want revealed to Dumbledore," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "That's all."

"And how did you find out this big secret?" he asked, nuzzling her neck. "I'll reward you even better this time," he added, pushing her off his lap gently so that she was standing, and he pulled her in the direction of her bedroom.

"I know the big secret from… from the future," Hermione admitted, and he paused.

"Yes, of course you do, love."

"I'm serious, Severus," she said, looking at him anxiously. "Please. I couldn't tell you, but I have to. I can't keep it from you. I love you too much. The truth is, the first time I met you, you were my professor in Potions… in 1991."

Severus looked at her stonily, his arms crossed.

"I see," he said.

"I met Bellatrix Lestrange in battle, and only met Narcissa Malfoy once," she continued, trying to convince him. "She ignored me because of my heritage."

"Heritage?"

"…Severus, I'm a Gryffindor. I'm a Muggleborn Gryffindor."

"What?" His voice was hard as his frown deepened.

"Please, it's all true, and I'm so sorry to have kept it from you," Hermione said, worried. She knew what his temper was like when he was older, and was fearing it yet again. "I'm from the future. You've always wanted the job as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in our time, but it was only in 1996 when Professor Dumbledore gave you the job. I know about… I know about James Potter saving you from Remus Lupin when he was in werewolf form, when you were led there by Sirius Black."

"So… it's true," Severus said slowly, and Hermione began to tremble. She just nodded, afraid to speak. "You… you're a _Mudblood_."

"Which is what you called Lily Evans in… in your fifth year," she said shakily. "Well done, Severus Snape. Well done. No wonder she hates you."

"You… you…" The next thing Hermione knew was intense pain, as he backhanded her so hard that she fell to the floor. "How _could_ you? You trusted me, but clearly you yourself are not trustworthy."

"Please, Severus," she said, tears springing to her eyes, and not from the pain. "Don't tell them. You already hate me. They're my only family in this time. No one else likes me, but they accepted me without knowing that I'm a Muggleborn witch, or a Gryffindor, at that. If you tell the Blacks, I won't have any reason to stay here."

"Good," Severus snarled, and he stalked out of the room.

Hermione burst into tears, and slept on the floor that night, too upset and too emotionally tired to move. Well, it had certainly been a mistake to tell me. A _big_ mistake.

"Oh, gods," she whispered before she fell asleep. "Maybe _that_ was the big mistake…"

* * *

The next morning, she placed glamours on her face so that no one could see the large bruise that Severus had left. She trembled only slightly as she sat at the Slytherin table, and greeted them calmly.

Unfortunately, Severus seemed to have told them, because their own greeting was polite, but cold. Hermione ate a piece of toast very quickly, cleared the pumpkin juice from her goblet and instead poured water in it, wary of the glances that her former friends kept shooting to her. Severus was further down the table than usual.

Unable to breathe properly, Hermione went outside for some fresh air. Once outside, she walked down the hill a bit, until she got the point where she had met Severus.

That was when everything went black, as she heard Narcissa's voice: "Stupefy."

* * *

When Hermione awoke, she almost screamed when she saw that they had taken her to the Dark Lord. Yes. Voldemort was standing there in all his smug 'glory'. She _would_ have screamed if she'd had the energy; but her sleep had been fitful, nightmares of Severus hating her, hitting her.

And now he, Narcissa, Bellatrix, and Regulus had brought her here. Into the forest, to face Lord Voldemort.

"Oh, Merlin," she croaked, before she was tied to a tree. "Why?"

"Because you had the audacity to befriend your betters," Voldemort hissed, and she shuddered weakly. "And because you are a Mudblood, and a Gryffindor. Bella?"

"Yes, Master?" Bellatrix asked, walking forward, all the while her eyes shooting daggers at Hermione.

"Use the Cruciatus Curse on your 'friend'," he said.

"She's no friend of mine," Bellatrix said, and she raised her wand. Hermione glanced to the others, her eyes seeking help, but she knew none was coming. "Crucio."

Weak though she was, Hermione had a lion's spirit, and she refused to scream, no matter how much it drained her. Voldemort was amused at this display of Gryffindor courage, and kept getting Bellatrix to pause to give Hermione a breather, before starting up the torture again, hoping to get her to scream, at the very least out of surprise.

"Friendship is a level playing field," Hermione whispered hoarsely, remembering her words of the night before. "There's no hierarchy to friendship. There are no rules."

Bellatrix faltered, but Voldemort urged her on, so she continued.

"Quiet, Mudblood," she said, her voice becoming a hiss.

"Untie her!" Voldemort commanded Regulus, who untied Hermione, letting her fall to the ground, shaking from the pain. "Begin again, Bella."

"The time you…" Hermione said, the torture having been resumed. Merlin, it was like her bones were all being broken, her organs ripped out with bare hands, her blood being saturated with some painful substance that made it boil. "The time you and Narcissa interrupted the… the party with… with those balls that bounced magically. You were… you were only five and six. The time you all pranked… pranked S-sirius with the…" Bellatrix was faltering yet again, but regained her own control. "You pranked him with… with a rope that… it… oh, Merlin. It wrapped around his… don't you remember? You told me… the day we… the day we… met."

"Silence, Mudblood!" Voldemort cried, seeing Bellatrix ready to break. Then he noticed something. The pain had been draining Hermione so much that her glamours had faded, and they all saw the huge bruise on her cheek. Severus was horrified. He had caused that. He had caused _that_? Gods, how it must have hurt her. And now _this_…

What had he done?

"How did you get that, Mudblood?" Voldemort asked, pointing to Hermione's cheek.

Realising what had happened, Hermione sighed. "I got it from a person I loved very much, and will never cease to love."

The Death Eaters laughed, including the students. The Blacks wondered if she'd got it from Severus, and glanced over at him surreptitiously. The modicum of guilt they saw on his usually impassive face confirmed it.

"Keep it up, Bellatrix dear," Voldemort said, indicating that she should continue to torture Hermione. "Or perhaps Narcissa would like to step up to the mark yet?"

"No; it's all right, my lord," Bellatrix said, not wanting her sister to have to suffer what she was going through. She resumed the torture, and Hermione let out a loud gasp.

"The rooms! When we redecorated my rooms… and buying the clothes in Hogsmeade… don't you _remember_, Bella? Gods, don't you remember me?"

"I won't say it again, Mudblood," Voldemort said, furious. Bellatrix glanced at him, and then back at Hermione.

"It's not… blood that counts. It's the number of… the number of friends that you h-have," Hermione said. "The love… that's inside. You… oh, gods. You never lose the… the love. It stays… it stays in you. It _is_ you… Oh, Merlin! It never mattered before… when you first met me. It… it didn't matter when you… when you didn't know… oh, Circe! Help me! You liked me for… for me. I sat through conversations where… I heard that… I was… I was… I was the lowest form of… life. Sweet Merlin, help…"

The Death Eaters were slowly feeling more and more uncomfortable. Bellatrix felt the curse fading. Her heart wasn't in it anymore. Voldemort noticed the atmosphere changing, and didn't like it. Hermione continued with her impassioned speech, punctuated by gasps of pain, and strained breaths.

"I knew what you… what you would become… like this," she said, moving her hand to indicate the Death Eaters, who all shrank back a little, not liking the fact that they were being pointed out in this way, like they were monsters. "But we… were friends. And I thought… maybe I could… change you from becoming… one of _his_… one of his…"

"Keep going, Miss Black," Voldemort said, as Hermione's voice trailed off. "Or I will kill both you and your sister in very painful ways."

Bellatrix lowered her wand, and turned to speak to the Dark Lord. Hermione pulled out the diary. She knew she had to get out of here, and get out of here now. It was just her time to go, and she wanted to. She wanted to go home.

"No," she heard. It was Bellatrix, refusing to continue the torture. "She's my friend, and I will not hurt her, by your say-so or by anyone else's."

Using this distraction, Hermione murmured the Imperius Curse.

"Take me twenty years into the future," she whispered.

Severus saw her lips move. What was she doing? A horrible feeling swept over him, just as the Dark Lord's anger grew.

"I forgive you," Hermione whispered to Severus. The Dark Lord raised his wand to Bellatrix. "_Stupefy_," she said intensely, aiming her own wand at him, and Voldemort was thrown off his feet before he could harm Bellatrix. "Portus," she finally said weakly, barely hearing Severus' cry, as she was pulled through time to the grounds of Hogwarts.

**

* * *

**

And _**now**_** what will happen?**


	7. The Seventh Trial

"The Seventh Trial"

It was Hogwarts, and it was daytime. She was no longer in the forest, but in the grounds, near where she had met Severus. Severus… Oh, Circe, she ached in so many places. Her heart was the worst. Standing unsteadily, she used some of her fading energy to check the date and time. Yes. Exactly twenty years. That meant that breakfast was still on, which would make it easier to find her friends.

"You cast the Tempus Charm _after_ you bumped into me, not before."

Hermione looked up in fright to see Severus, older Severus, leaning on the tree near where she had knocked him over. Automatically, her hand rose to her cheek and she took a step back. He winced, and started forward.

"Please, Hermione," he said quietly. "Please, please forgive me. I was angry… I never meant to strike you. I'm just so used to people leaving me. You weren't supposed to be from our time, which meant that you'd leave us. I wanted us to be together forever."

Hermione was still backing off, but she stopped when he asked for forgiveness.

"Don't you remember, Sev… Professor Snape?" she asked tiredly. "I forgave you in the forest twenty years ago. Before I left, I forgave you. Why ask for it now?"

"It's been twenty years for me, Hermione; not for you," he said. "Things have changed for me over the years; you've only been away from me for a minute. Please. Tell me what to do to make it up to you. Anything."

"Just leave me be, S-sir." It was a reverse of the day she arrived, and greeted Severus after she had 'met' Professor Dumbledore. "I need to go and see my _real_ friends. They'll be worried. It's been so long since I saw them."

"Yes, it has," Severus said, hurt. "They're waiting for you in the Entrance Hall. We thought that you might arrive today. Everyone's been waiting."

"Th-thank you," Hermione said.

He accompanied her up the slope to the school, talking all the way. She remained silent, no matter how hard he tried to get her to speak.

"Hermione, I can't stand this," Severus said finally, grabbing onto her shoulders to stop her. She tried to draw back, frightened, but he wouldn't let her go. "Damn it, Hermione; I've had twenty years to try and make it up to you, and you weren't even there to see my efforts. If I'd known how to follow you, I would have done. And for the record, you were too quiet for me to hear what you said."

"Please, let me go, Professor," she said, even though she didn't want him to let go.

"I've… I've always loved you, Hermione," he said. "Always. Ever since we met. Why do you think I was so curious to find out your name? Why do you think I asked you out that first day you were at Hogwarts?"

"What about all the years you had to be nice to me when I was a student?" she retorted.

"I didn't think there was any point," he replied. "Really. It wasn't until I saw you in the room of requirement, that I had this crazy moment where I thought that… I thought that maybe you _could_ go and fix things, find the real me, the old me. And yet, the younger me. I had that much faith in you in that moment. You had the motivation, the talent, the dogged persistence."

"You're still my teacher, sir," Hermione said. "And there's a… a significant age difference between us now. So there's little point, is there?"

"You mean that… if I wasn't your teacher, and if we were closer in age," Severus began, hopeful.

"Sir, you can't do anything about our ages!" Hermione said, frowning at him. "Now let me go to see my friends."

Severus let her go coldly, and nodded. She started up the hill, followed slowly by her former boyfriend.

"So you _did_ fall out of love with me," he murmured, but she heard, and whipped around.

"I never could do that; but I lost your trust," she said, and ran to Hogwarts the rest of the way.

In the Entrance Hall, waiting for her return, were three people who she took a few moments to recognise: Bellatrix Lestrange, Narcissa Malfoy, and Regulus Black were waiting. The happiest grins Hermione had ever seen on anyone broke out on their faces, and they started forward.

But Hermione saw the four Marauders and Lily Potter standing nearby, watching happily as well. When it registered in her mind what she was seeing…

Severus caught her before she could hit the floor.

* * *

Harry and Ron were sitting by Hermione's bed when she woke up, and she gave a happy cry to see them.

"Oh, thank Merlin," she said, tears stinging her cheeks. "I thought I'd never see you two again… not until you were born. And even then… well… that's not something to talk about, is it?"

"You're a living legend, Hermione," Harry said, squeezing her hand.

"Well, I guess I'm in good company, Harry," she replied, and he looked confused.

"Huh?"

"You being a living legend, too," she said, nodding at him. Then it dawned on her. She had made the big mistake… hadn't she? Had she… had she _actually_ changed the past, to some small degree? And where was…

"Where's your s-scar?" she asked, pushing his fringe back. "Harry, it's gone. What happened?"

"What are you talking about, Hermione?" he asked.

"What's going on?" Ron added, looking between them. "`Mione, what's wrong?"

"The… the lightning-shaped scar. You had it… you got it when Voldemort's spell rebounded off you because of the sacrifice your mother made when you were a baby…"

"Voldemort died twenty years ago," Harry said, frowning. "Come on, Hermione."

"She left before it happened," Dumbledore said, and Hermione turned to see that the headmaster was at her other side, as was Bellatrix Lestrange. "Her memories are clearly what they were before she went back in time."

"So I'll never share the same memories as everyone else," Hermione said, the tears continuing to drip onto the bed clothes.

"I'm so sorry, Hermione," Bellatrix said. "I realise that it's been years for me, but it's been years of mulling over everything that happened that day. I never should have followed his orders… none of us should have. But you… you convinced us that it was the wrong way. It changed everything. Everyone else who was there… we all turned against him that day."

"What?" she whispered. "I'm confused."

"The pain I put you through at his orders… it was shameful."

"I've been hurt worse than that before," Hermione replied, steadfastly not looking at Severus, who was also nearby. In fact, she was surrounded by more and more people as word spread around the ward that she was awake. "So I've got a false past."

"No," Dumbledore said. "Your past is what has made you who you are, and has evidently changed the future for the better."

"That was the idea," Hermione said, grumbling. "This is typical. All I tried to do…"

"If it's any help… here," Severus said, handing over a diary that was identical to Hermione's portkey. "You'll need it."

"What…?" she began, but he was gone.

"He's been looking forward to this day," Lily said. "He's been waiting for you for all these years. Even knowing that you wouldn't want him, he's just wanted to apologise for everything that happened."

"What _did_ happen?" Ron asked. "Is it… is it anything to do with that bruise on her cheek?"

Hermione touched the bruise, and winced. "It doesn't matter anymore, does it?"

"You may want to read that," Regulus said, pointing to the diary. "He's been keeping it ever since you got to Hogwarts, getting as many anecdotes—memories, you see—of your time here as possible. So you can catch up. A sort of abridged version of your Hogwarts life until this moment."

"He… did this?" she asked, and she opened it. Sure enough, his writing covered the pages, and she fingered the words, caressing the paper. "For me?"

"Who else?" Bellatrix asked, and she patted Hermione's hand. "But please forgive me for using that… that spell on you."

"As I said, I've been hurt more than that, and you would have had to become a Death Eater eventually," Hermione replied, clutching her friend's hand. "It was a family thing."

"Did you know that peace was restored to the wizarding world after you left?" Narcissa asked. "Oh, of course not. We used our memories of what you said while you were being tortured," Hermione clenched her hands, "and printed it all out. Every witch and wizard received a copy. It changed everything."

"For the better?" Hermione asked, relaxing her fists.

"Yes," Sirius said. "We never got to thank you for helping us."

"Never considered that, with you gone, we could have gone back to pranking Severus," James admitted. "But it was all for the best."

"I'm glad," Hermione said, nodding. Out of curiosity, she pulled out her portkey, and tried to open it. It worked, and she read what was inside. In her own writing, it told the _much_ shorter story of the defeat of Voldemort. She read through her notes rapidly. It was true; the day she left, the Death Eaters turned on Voldemort. He was given the Dementor's Kiss until all five horcruxes could be tracked down using the memories forcibly extracted from him under torture. He hadn't met Nagini, who Hermione inquired about. She also timidly asked about the prophecy.

"Prophecy?" Dumbledore asked.

"You know. When you met Sybil Trelawney."

"Sybil who?"

"She's the Divination teacher, sir… isn't she?"

"No," he headmaster replied. Hermione was aghast. "Our Divination teacher is Professor Giles. Sensible man."

"A sensible person teaching Divination? Who'd have thought it?" Hermione muttered.

"Maybe you should get some more sleep," Remus said quietly.

"The others want to see you," Harry said eagerly.

"The others?"

"All our other friends," Ron said. "Of course, that's most of the people in our year level. But we were the only ones that you talked about in the 70s, apparently."

"Well, you're my best friends," Hermione said, confused. "You _were_."

"You've got more best friends than just us," Harry said.

"I'm… I'm going to go back to my rooms… or somewhere else," she said, realising that the guest quarters were probably taken at the moment. They'd certainly have a different password by now. They let her go, understanding her need to be alone.

* * *

She found the room of requirement. That was the source of all her problems. That and it's stupid library. Well, to hell with books!

She turned the room into the same library that Severus had created in there, and began to take books from the shelves. She used destructive spells on them, blasting books, setting books on fire. The destruction continued as she burst into fresh tears.

Severus entered the room, closing the door behind himself quietly.

"Hermione?"

"I wish I'd never changed the past!" she yelled, in tears. "I should have just bloody well stayed here, minding my own business, staying out of the past where I should never have been."

"You were just bringing about what should have happened," Severus replied, his hushed voice a contrast to hers.

"Not the way it should have done," she said, sinking to her knees on the floor. He hurried forward, worried that she might have hurt herself, and knelt down beside her. "I still got sent forward in time, just like last time."

"Last time was supposed to be an accident. This time, it was self-inflicted."

"It was my time to go," she said, her voice finally a whisper. "I couldn't stay there any longer. I'd lost my friends, and was in the company of Lord Voldemort. Life really couldn't get any worse, and had no chance of getting bet…"

Severus kissed her to shut her up. Eventually, Hermione pushed him away, still crying.

"Leave it," she said.

"Why does the past matter?" he asked. "All that matters to me is from the moment we met, and from the moment you came back into my life this morning. The future is more important than the past, because you make the future."

"I changed the past…"

"Shut up about the past!" he said. "Look, you changed it, and it's clearly for the better. Isn't it?"

"…Yes. People are alive, when they should be dead."

"And the Dark Lord is dead."

"What happened after he got the Dementor's Kiss, and they destroyed all the horcruxes?"

"They didn't tell you?"

She shook her head.

"Well, he was executed, partly out of pity. He was just an empty shell, after all."

"I see."

"…Hermione, I love you. I really love you. Now read the book. The diary. You can read about your past at Hogwarts. I'll disappear from your life altogether if you like. I don't expect anything, and I sure as hell don't deserve anything."

Hermione blinked back further tears. "Sir… Severus… if you leave my life altogether, I'll die. It will kill me never to see you again."

"Then don't send me away."

"But we can't be together," she said, backing away. "Gods, I love you more than anything else, Severus Snape. But I lost all trust in you when you hit me. No. It wasn't then. I just blamed myself for that."

"I behaved like my father, and it sickens me," he said, tears now dripping down his cheeks as well.

"It was when my 'friends' betrayed me to their 'master'—_your_ 'master'—that my trust was gone."

"Why did you place your trust in me in the first place?" he asked. "I was just a stranger; you'd only known me a week."

Hermione stood up. "I knew you long before that, Professor Snape. You just didn't know it then. It was when I told you that the problems started." And with that, she left.

* * *

The last Hogsmeade weekend of 1998 came far too quickly for Hermione, and for her friends, the entire Hogwarts seventh year. With a sigh, she walked into the alley where she and Severus had apparated away from that first Hogsmeade day in the 70s, the last time she could do this as a student.

She never thought that Severus, as one of the supervising teachers, would have set things up the way he had last time. He came up from behind her, grabbed her around the waist, and whispered to her to trust him before she was apparated away from that spot before she could scream.

They were in the same forest, but had gone directly to the clearing this time. Hermione was shaking as she got her footing, and pushed herself away from her teacher.

"What the hell are you playing at, S-sir?" she asked. In answer, he pulled something small out of his pocket. When he enlarged it, Hermione recognised it as the same blanket on which they had picnicked so many times. He levitated it to the ring in the ground, and looked at her.

"Do you want lunch?" he asked.

Hermione shook her head, and began to cry. "There's only one thing I want, and that's you, S-severus S-snape."

He swept her into his arms, and kissed her. "Then marry me, damn it. Continue to love me, and I swear I'll marry you. I have your heart, remember? And you have m…"

"I never gave you my heart," she whispered into his ear, and he stilled.

"What?" he asked hoarsely.

"I gave you my body, and my soul… but I always save the best for last. And I've been saving this last until now."

* * *

Graduation could never come too soon for Hermione. She and Severus married soon after, with all of their friends in attendance. And what was called "Hermione's Last Speech" was remembered and respected by everyone in the wizarding world. In fact, it was even used sometimes as an audition piece for plays, which amused the Snapes greatly.

And there was never a cross word spoken between them again, because they learned to appreciate not only the present and the future, but the past as well, and never made the same mistakes again.

While Hermione never figured out what precisely her big mistake was, she had a feeling that it was something to do with the sense of déjà vu that had hit her at her wedding to Severus. Every anniversary, she would have a strange dream where she would say, after marrying him, that she made the right choice by going through with it.

After all, the Gryffindor Princess marrying the Head of Slytherin House was a surprise choice.

**

* * *

**

I hope that was finished satisfactorily enough for you, dear readers. You can decide on what the last trial was for yourselves. Thank you for reading.


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